Friday, December 11, 2009

So last night I had my first ever sewing class at Stitch Your Art Out in Pine Grove Mills, PA. Kim Davis was my instructor for the class. And what a wonderful teacher she is; very patient. I had such a wonderful time working with Kim and my classmates chatting away about life and sewing. I cannot wait until next Thursday.

We are making pajama pants. I am using Red Letter Day by Lizzy House from Andover Fabrics. I just couldn't pass up making pajamas from the geese and duck print. Kim suggested that I need to get a pair of yellow duckie slippers to complete my bedtime attire :)
I promise to post pictures of me in the pajamas when I am finished. But I probably won't have the slippers.

We were able to trace the pattern from the master pattern using a cool Pattern Ease stuff. Much easier to handle than that tissue stuff in commercial patterns. And OMG so much pinning! I am not used to so much pinning since most of quilt construction is smaller than 6" and I don't have to pin.

Then carefully cutting out the fabric. My biggest problem in the past was raising up the fabric to much and distorting the tissue. But with my flat sided Fiskars I was able to keep the fabric flat on the surface of the table; for the most part ;) I am glad I spent a little money on their purchase.

We were also able to sew the two back and two front pieces together at the crotch. I ended up getting one inseam finished and ironed before we had to pack up and leave. My "homework" is to finish my second inseam.

What is interesting to me is that the pattern author has us make a 1/2" seam and then cut it down to 1/4" before finishing the seam. I am sure there is a reason behind this, but I have no idea why we would do this. Then the whole bit about finishing seams.

I know that fabrics fray, duh? Why didn't I think about this when I tried to make clothing before? Just goes to show you how much better I learn stuff in the classroom setting. Reading a commercial pattern for me is like reading Greek. Doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

Kim suggested finishing the seam using pinking shears, a zig-zag, or a second straight seam inside my original seam. I chose to use a zig-zag since I don't have a Serger and am not a big fan of the pinking shears. They always hurt my had to operate them. Maybe I should get them oiled or something; )

I am hoping that finishing the seams will add some strength to them. As any clothing I have made in the past has not stood up to wearing and washing. But then again, I didn't finish my seams on that clothing AND really know what I was doing in the first place :)

Thursday, December 10, 2009

It's a little chilly in my office today. So I am wearing my monster gloves to keep warm. Along with a fleece jacket and a fleece blanket :) These lovely monster gloves are from my Handmade Swap and the lovely Kayla.

I also finished up my ORB Secret Santa gift too. I am putting it in the mail tomorrow for a special ORB buddy. Nope, I am not telling who, so don't bother askn' :)

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Our two newest ornaments from Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer TV Special by Rankin and Bass. The Bumble (a.k.a. the Abominable Snow Monster of the North) with Rudolf and Yukon Cornelius with his sled dogs. I love all of the Rankin and Bass holiday specials. The stop motion animation is incredible.

I had totally forgotten about purchasing these ornaments. It was a wonderful surprise to pull them out of their boxes last night and put them on our tree. Yes, hubby and I were actually able to put our up this year. See, we have to travel sometimes around the holidays. And with three mischievous cats, we decide not to tempt fate and leave them munchies when we are away from home.

I purchased LED lights for the tree as well. I love them and feel better about keeping the tree on and not consuming to much energy to do it. Expensive little things though, 11.99 for 60 lights. But I know I did the right thing :)

ORB Round 4 Sting TutorialI should be posting the next tutorial for the string block this weekend. I had hoped to get it done this week. But it just isn't working out.